Friday, August 26, 2011

What to do when you identity is stolen....

My identity just got stolen, cards applied for and money withdrawn from my bank account. I'm very careful with info. I think my mail got stolen when I was away for a month, despite having it stopped. Its a real big phuck up.

If you can afford the 10 dollar a month services available to protect yourself, good for you.

I don't want to pay a fee to an industry that perpetuates the fraud by not prosecuting fraudsters, and then tries to charge you for a service that essentially doesnt do anything. The law already protects your assets. It takes about 3 hours in one evening to write all the letters and fix the problem, plus a visit to the police station for a police report and your bank to close the old accounts and open new ones with new account numbers.

Here is what I did,

DEFENSE AND REHABILIATION

https://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs17a.htm

and I filed a complaint with the FTC

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/consumers/defend.html

By law, after filing a police report and providing a copy to the bank, credit card company and credit bureau, your funds should be returned to you within 7 to 12 business days. A free 90 day alert will protect your credit, and can be done online. A 7 year freeze on your credit history is free too with a copy of a police report. The credit bureaus are also required by law to give you a free credit report after filing a 90 day alert. This is so you can call any bogus accounts opened by the perps with credit card companies, banks, car dealerships and phone companies. Marks on your credit history should be removed. Fraudulent balances on your credit card expunged. And, fraudulently opened account, closed and removed from your credit history.

PREVENTION

You can life lock yourself by filling in an online request for the 90 day credit alert from one of the agencies. You only need to file one and theyll broadcast to all the other agencies. You can keep putting in an online 90 day alert as long as you want. Just put a reminder on your calendar for the reset. Surely that's not worth 10 dollars a month for life